About the Author The author, P.N. Oak having made some far-reaching discoveries in history, is the founder president of the Institute for Rewriting World History. His latest finding is that in pre-Christian times Vedic culture and Sanskrit language held full sway throughout the world. P.N. Oak was born in a Maharashtrian Brahmin family in which his father talked to him only in Sanskrit, mother only in English, relations in Marathi and town-folk in Hindi. That gave him fluency in these four languages from childhood. After obtaining his B.A. degree from Agra University and completing M.A., LL.B, courses of the Bombay University, Oak worked for a year as tutor in English at the Fergusson College, Pune and later having joined the army was posted to Singapore at the age of 24. There, after the British surrender, Oak was one of the organizers of the Indian National Army, a director and commentator at the Free India Radio, Saigon, and later a co-worker of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. After the end of World War II, Oak hitch-hiked from Singapore to Calcutta across the border jungles of several countries. From 1947 to 1974 his profession was mainly journalism having worked on the editorial staffs of the Hindustan Times and the Statesman, as a class I officer in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, and as editor in the American Embassys information service, all in New Delhi. Around 1959, Oak developed a curious new insight into history which led him to some stunning discoveries as a result of his absorbing hobby of visiting historic sites. He then founded (June 14, 1964)the institute for Rewriting Indian History and wrote several books (listed) elsewhere in this volume). Oaks historical acumen led him to di
Purushottam Nagesh Oak (2 March 1917 – 4 December 2007), commonly referred to as P. N. Oak, was an Indian writer, notable for his Hindu-centric brand of historical revisionism. Oak's "Institute for Rewriting Indian History" issued a quarterly periodical called Itihas Patrika in the 1980s.
Oak's claims, e.g. that Christianity and Islam are both derivatives of Hinduism, or that Vatican City, Kaaba, Westminster Abbey and the Taj Mahal were once Hindu temples to Shiva, and their reception in Indian popular culture have been noted by observers of contemporary Indian society. In addition to this Oak again asserted that the Vatican was allegedly originally a Vedic creation called Vatika and that the Papacy was also originally a Vedic Priesthood. He wrote books in three languages.